MFA Lecture Series: Aaron Curry

I attended the MFA Lecture by Aaron Curry on Nov. 18, 2009. He was born in Texas but now lives in Los Angeles. He talked about his art process and his work, which consists of paintings but mostly of large sculptures. He had received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and says that he didn't really learn art until he got to the big city of Chicago. He was interested in Surrealism, Dali, and Picasso, but at school the main emphasis was on Minimalism. However, he felt that as an artist, he wanted to go back to something and make it different with his style rather than embrace the new movements in art.

Some interesting pieces I thought he had were some sculptures with unique circular bases. For example, he made an abstract sculpture, but placed it on a base that was covered with a Garfield movie poster. He also made a piece dedicated to Tommy Lee Jones. His goals in sculpture consisted of a desire to "push them into a 3D space". His sculptures appear to be flat but they are actually 3D. Curry did this on purpose because he intended the sculpture be 3D but so the viewer cannot ever see behind it. Along with sculptures, Curry also did collages and paintings. He was most interested in approaching pieces with the mentality of "everything is either wet or it seems wet" in a piece or "everything is a shape or the image of a shape". He wondered how his pieces could be 2D and 3D at the same time. Curry also created a hollow deck from Star Trek: The Next Generation - he tried creating a virtual space with a grid in this project. The grid served as a means to create the illusion of perspective.

For color, Curry studied the palette used in medieval times. He also feels that color, such as red, for example, cannot be put into words and that it is "something you have to experience yourself". He also implemented "razzle dazzle camouflage" in his pieces, a way to confuse where ships were during WWII. He likes the confusion this can create in his pieces.

I found it interesting when Curry mentioned how he also worked with the computer before by doing some computer drawings. He said it was like developing a painting, but there isn't a physical "thing" to push around. However, he felt that it was difficult to make mistakes on a computer and that he actually "likes mistakes".

The most resonating thing from this lecture, I feel, was when Curry said that "once you start making things, it begins to mean something different to someone".